Joseph Chan, Under Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury also expressed that with effective risk control in place, embracing innovation will surely give rise to new vigour in the economic and industrial development. Fred Wang, Founder, MarsBit said, “As a next step, we plan to relocate the headquarter of MarsBit and NFT trading platform element to Hong Kong, and the POW’ER summit is also considering registering in Hong Kong.”
The establishment of “Web3 Hub@Cyberport” aims to support the development of local emerging industries and to attract international Web3 companies to set up operations in Hong Kong. “Web3 Hub@Cyberport” will provide opportunities for exchange and collaboration between local and foreign Web3 enterprises. It will also provide advanced facilities, comprehensive support and measures for Web3 enterprises newly settling in Cyberport.
Simon Chan, Chairman of Cyberport, said, “We are confident that, with the launch of Web3 Hub@Cyberport, Cyberport will progressively become home to more leading enterprises and cutting-edge technological talents, grounding a stronger pool of technological innovation power to help drive the high-quality development of Hong Kong's economy.”
Evan Auyang, Group President of Animoca Brands, a unicorn of Cyberport, engaged in digital entertainment and game development, delivered a keynote speech on "Metaverse and Gamefi Ecosystem". Evan pointed out that the development potential of the global Web3 and Gamefi industries are unlimited. The development opportunities in the APAC region, in particular, are encouraging. With the Hong Kong Government releasing the first Policy Statement on development of Virtual Assets and providing a clear direction for related industries, Hong Kong definitely has the potential to become a leader in the global Web3 industry, and to show the industry the way forward.
In the subsequent round table discussion under the topic of “Virtual Assets in Hong Kong: challenges and opportunities”, Shang Silin, Co-Founder, Marsbit; Cai Wensheng, Chairman of Meitu; and Kong Jianping, Founder, Nano Labs, explored together the new opportunities in the development of virtual assets. The guests pointed out that the basic technologies and ecosystem development in regard to Web3 are already in place, and the associated applications are expected to expand in different industries. It was also agreed that Hong Kong has unique advantages in bringing together Chinese and foreign cultures and connecting the world. Hong Kong should position as the global Web3 hub to appeal to international Web3 companies and talents to settle and develop in Hong Kong.
The Web3 start-ups, amongst Cyberport’s 1,900 community companies, fall into major categories of FinTech, Smart Living and Digital Entertainment/e-sports. Some of the leading ones are Animoca Brands and HashKey, the licensed Virtual Assets trading platform.
